I am Linda and along with my husband Richard and our dog Muffin we enjoy our summers on the UK's canal system

Sunday, 30 July 2017

Monk Meadow Dock (Sharpness Canal) – Saturday 29th July

At least it had stopped raining
when we woke up but it was still grey.

We left our mooring and headed
back to Gloucester. I was disappointed that I hadn’t been able to walk into
Frampton-on-Severn but maybe next time.

The lock which would have taken the Stroudwater Canal to the River Severn

We stopped at Saul Junction to
fill up with water and set off again. We
managed to get a space at Monk Meadow again and then walked to the docks were
there was a 3 day food festival taking place.
It was absolutely heaving and we couldn’t even get to a lot of the
stalls to see what they were selling – however there was a lot of space at a
fudge stall!

There was a lot of choice of food
to eat but at most of the ones we wanted to try there were long queues. We settled on tacos with pulled pork – they
were lovely.

Lunch was finished off by an ice
cream from a narrow boat ice cream parlour.
Muffin had his own.

There was also a RNLI exhibition
to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the launch of the Gloucester
lifeboat. There was some vintage
lifeboats in the basin.

There were also two boats on the
hard. Richard was in his element as they
were both on trailers that he had made 😊

On our way back to the boat we
came across the Sula, a lightship which has been in Gloucester for some time
but she is now for sale.

And also this boat – anyone for a
hot-tub?!

After a quiet afternoon, we went
to Deck of Cards for a drink, nibbles and chat.
It was a lovely evening – thank you Gill and Phil and we will see you
somewhere!

The Sharpness Canal is renowned
for its bridgemen’s houses. Eight of the
bridges have classical-style houses nearby. These were built in the 1840s when
competition from the railways made it important to have men on hand to open the
bridges at night so that vessels could meet the tides at Sharpness. At that
time, the other bridgemen lived in existing houses that were close enough to
their bridges. Most of the houses are now in private ownership and are not occupied
by current bridgemen

Fretherne Bridge House

The classical-style bridgemen's
houses were originally symmetrical in plan with gables on each elevation. Each
had a living room, one bedroom, a scullery at the back and a porch with Doric
columns at the front. In later years, the
houses were extended to provide more accommodation and modern facilities. From
the canal, however, Fretherne Bridge House has hardly changed, as the
alterations have been confined to the basement and the rear.